Hey everyone, I am new here. I recently purchased my first car which is a 1998 Civic DX Coupe. The car is fully stock and has had 1 owner it's whole life meaning I am the 2nd owner. The guy I bought it from used the car for school and he is a brain surgeon now so he got himself a new car. The car is a 5speed manual and has 95k miles on it. He had a folder of every oil change and every other thing that has been done to the car by the dealer. All in all the car is super clean, shifts like butter, and is just plain stock.
I believe the engine is a d18y7. Now what I was wondering is what can I do to the car to get a little more kick out of it and just hype up the stock car that it is. What potential does this engine have? What parts would be best for it? Stuff like that... I think that's all for now, I might post some pictures soon.
Thanks for looking


PS: I got the car for 2.8k, did I get it for a good price or what?

 

solid price. if you wanna maintain the stock power plant you can open it up with intake, header and exhaust to let it breathe to get the most out of it. a b series swap is generally speaking the way to go if you wanna make decent power.

suspension is a must for handling purposes, coilovers/shocks set-up is an easy buy with endless choices in all price ranges.

wheels and tires are also preference based (size/width ect..)

i guess the real question is ultimately what do you plan on using the car for..? is it gonna be a dd, a weekend warrior or a little of both. these will determine what route you go in the modifying department

 

First off thanks for replying.
The plans for this car I would say are for sure a dd and possibly later down the road a nice track car or something of that sort. Now all these parts like the headers, intake and exhaust that you mention are all bolt on parts correct? And I have heard people say that for the suspension and wheels I would need to get a suspension first before wheels because I could get the measurements wrong. Is this a true thing or..?
What I really want is a nice EF hatch with a K series swap all motor but that is so far right now that I can only look at pictures. (Broke college student).
Thanks for the reply once again!

 

If your looking for springs to lower it and alil bit better handling you can go on eBay and find lowering springs but you have to make sure they have a spring rate or else it will turn like $hit. I got some on my civic and I couldnt ask for a better ride with how cheap they where at the price of 50 bucks. Lowered 2in with the spring rate of a name brand spring called tein

 

Oh that is really cheap for springs! Usually I see prices up in the 500$ range. The way I want my ride to be is I want it lowered but NOT slammed. I do not want to worry about pot holes and or getting stuck places. There is a good fender-tire gap right now and I would like to get rid off that. I also want my ride to be stiff and with good handling. I was thinking maybe going with coils since I could adjust the height pretty much any time I would like.
Thanks for replying

 

The springs I have lower the car 2in so its not super low but you could get sleves to play around with the ride high. There also pretty stiff that's why you have to check what the spring rate is. I don't have any problems with pot holes and I live in Chicago so there every where you look

 

Haha I live in Chicago as well! Pot holes are terrible here. I might try the sleeves but i'll have to see about that a little bit later. Right now i'm just thinking about the "performance/engine" aspect of the car.
Thanks

 

No prob

 

I have the same motor you have and def let it breath more I noticed a differnce doing that to mine and I put a stage one clutch in mine and I noticed a way better response doing that